Palace sights in Tehran
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
Ivan-e Takht-e Marmar
The Ivan-e Takht-e Marmar is a mirrored, open-fronted audience hall dominated by a magnificent throne. The throne is supported by human figures and constructed from 65 pieces of yellow alabaster from mines in Yazd. It was made in the early 1800s for Fath Ali Shah, a monarch who managed a staggering (and quite likely very tiring) 200-odd wives and 170 offspring. This hall was used on ceremonial occasions, including the Napoleon-style self-coronation of Reza Shah in 1925.
A narrow corridor leads off to a side room covered with murals of the fictional kings described in Ferdosi's Shahnamah - look for Zahhak, the king with a snake on his shoulder that had to be fed with human…
reviewed
-
White Palace
What is now called the White Palace was built between 1931 and 1936 and served as the Pahlavi summer residence. The two bronze boots outside are all that remain of a giant statue of Reza Shah – he got the chop after the revolution. The 5000-sq-metre, 54-room palace is no Versailles. Instead it’s a modern building filled with a hodge-podge of extravagant furnishings, paintings and vast made-to-measure carpets. The tiger pelt in the office, among other things, reveals the shah as a man of dubious taste, though in fairness pelts were more in vogue in the 1950s.
reviewed
-
Green Palace
At the uphill end of the complex, the more classical-looking Green Palace was built at the end of the Qajar era and extensively remodelled by the Pahlavis. Shah Reza lived here for only a year and apparently found the bed, if not the mirror stalactites on the ceiling, a little too soft. It was later used as a private reception hall (upstairs) and residence (downstairs) for special guests.
The design is over-the-top opulent, with wall-to-wall mirrors in the appropriately named Mirror Hall, and the bedroom. Be sure to go around the back to take in the view.
reviewed
-
Shams-Al Emarat
Shams-Al Emarat, at the end of the garden, is an imposing structure and was the tallest palace of its day, designed to blend European and Persian architectural traditions. Born of Nasser al-Din Shah's desire to have a palace that afforded him a panoramic view of the city, it was designed by master architect Moayer al-Mamalek and built between 1865 and 1867. A sequence of mirrored and tiled rooms display a collection of photographs, together with furniture and vases given to the shahs by European monarchs, especially the French.
reviewed
-
Emarat-e Badgir
The recently restored Emarat-e Badgir was first erected in the reign of Fath Ali Shah. The interior has typically ostentatious mirror work and is worth a quick look, though upstairs no longer seems to be open.
reviewed
